All the Devils' hottest news, from notes to numbers to neutral-zone traps

Saturday, March 10, 2012

As far as comebacks go, getting back into the playoffs this season after missing them a year ago is the one that matters most in the Devils’ locker room.

There has been a trio of compelling individual comeback stories, however, that have played a significant role in the Devils’ return to respectability this season.

There’s captain Zach Parise, who missed all but one of the final 70 games of last season following knee surgery and has returned top form with 27 goals and 59 points. And Petr Sykora, a deserving nominee for the Masterton Trophy for sportsmanship, perseverance and dedication to hockey who earned a contract as a training camp tryout and being out of the NHL for a year and a half and has 15 goals and 35 points.

Perhaps the most unheralded comeback, however, has been that of defenseman Bryce Salvador.

Salvador’s career was in jeopardy after he sat out all of last season with a cochlear – or inner ear – concussion that had been triggered from a pair of hits he took in a preseason game against Philadelphia. Although he was symptom-free heading into training camp in September, he was still a question mark in terms of how long he could remain healthy.

Six months later, the 36-year-old Salvador will enter Saturday’s contest against the Islanders as one of six Devils to have played in all 67 of the team’s games so far. Parise and Sykora also have not missed a game.

“Honestly, it’s like I don’t really think I missed last season because it’s just so far behind me now,” Salvador said. “It’s not something I think about unless it’s brought up.”

Like most players, Salvador has had minor injuries that he’s played through this season, but says he’s had “no problems” related to his concussion. Whether he ever doubted that would be the case is not something he admits to either.

“I kind of just take the mindset to control what I can,” he said. “Coming into the season, I controlled every aspect I could in terms of my rehab and my conditioning and being prepared for this season. Those are the things I knew I could control, so those are the things I worried about, not if something else happens or you get injured or not injured. You can’t focus on those things.”

Parise worked out with Salvador and a group of NHL players during the summer in Minnesota and never saw anything but a player who was confident he could come back and contribute again.

“I would ask him a lot how he was feeling throughout the workouts once we started to ramp it up a little bit throughout July and August,” Parise said. “He always looked great when we were working. He was lifting the most weight, beating everybody in the races. He was unbelievable, so I knew he was going to ready to go.”

Like Parise, Salvador had some rust to shake off at the start of the season along with “a readjustment to NHL life” as far as the day-to-day preparation that goes into playing every game.

“It’s just having the mindset day in and day out of being back in the game and how you prepare and how you manage your time,” he said. “All of those things are off ice and then, obviously, on the ice it was just getting more of a feel of reading the pressure and just how quick things happen, getting re-used to that. The one thing you can’t simulate in the summer is an NHL player coming down on you at 20 miles an hour or whatever we skate at and forcing you to read and react.

“There’s a transition period with that, but I was just fortunate enough that I came back when everyone else was coming back. It wasn’t like I was coming back mid-season when guys had been playing for 20, 30, 40 games. I think that made it an easier adjustment.”

After getting through that transition, Salvador once again became an important part of the Devils’ defense, averaging 20:06 in ice time per game. He leads the team with a plus-15 defensive rating and has been a stalwart on a penalty killing unit that is ranked second in the NHL.

His importance goes beyond his on-ice contributions, though.

“He’s a really good locker room person,” Parise said. “He’s a good leader. He’s a good person. He’s never a guy that you have to worry about if he’s going to be ready or not. You know he’s going to compete. He’s just a good teammate to have. You know he’s going to be ready to play all the time.”

While Salvador was out last season and wondering when he would feel normal again, he missed the camaraderie of being around his teammates in the locker room and being involved in the competition. That’s made him appreciate all of it more this season.

“It was more from not playing and watching hockey. That’s when I felt it the most,” he said. “You’d be in the stands and there’s nothing you can do to participate one way or the other in the outcome of the game. You kind of feel more helpless. From that standpoint, it’s kind of like you’re given a second chance.

“At this point in my career at my age to be in a situation where I was able to come back, you definitely don’t take that for granted.”

Whether his is a great comeback story, he leaves that to others to decide.

“I think every player just looks at themselves and are they contributing and helping the team,” he said. “Everyone wants to feel like they’re providing that. That’s my goal every day, to feel that I’m providing something.”

With his contract up after this season, it would be understandable if Salvador started to wonder now what next season will hold for him and if the Devils will want him back, but that would go against the approach that has served him so well over the last two years.

“Like I said, I can’t control that. Right?” he said. “That’s really how I look at a lot of things. Right now, I just look at each game. We have a great chemistry, a great team here and I feel that we can surprise some people. So, that’s really the focus and what’s going to happen next year or the year after that, those are things I’ve learned to control what you can in the now.”

***In addition to Salvador, Parise and Sykora, David Clarkson, Dainius Zubrus and Mark Fayne also have not missed any games so far this season.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.